Last days at Oxenhope
I am really pleased to hear you are out of the main shops and entering the paint shop ready for weighing and then released to traffic! The November Steam World is superb! What a great selection of photographs and articles. You will have no doubt already seen in your comment that the Ivatt tank has been printed as 41236 and not 41326 as in the photograph. I, along with some friends, travelled over the branch on the last day of passenger services, a rather snowy December 30 1961. I have attached a photograph taken at Oxenhope that afternoon showing a DMU, two 2-car units with an Oxenhope destination blind. You will see it shows almost the same infrastructure you mention. It would appear little had changed from steam days.
I appreciate DMU’s are not normally printed in SW but possibly this could be the exception?
Ron Herbert by e-mail
(Seems like the right time of year for a snow scene, so the DMU isn’t a problem - Ed)
‘Castle’ on top form
What a great picture you put on the cover of SW436! Here is ‘Castle’ 4-6-0 No. 5063 , late in life, possibly deputising for a diesel, blasting up Hatton Bank with what appears to be a 12-coach Paddington-Birkenhead express, apparently with considerable ease. There is no trace of leaking steam and the fireman is looking at the cameraman, perhaps looking pleased
